This last year has felt like a boxing match in which I managed to avoid getting knocked out but dang, I didn’t win. That said, there were sparse moments of sincere joy for which I’m truly grateful. Here are a few:

Making bubbles with my students.

The thrill of making these giant bubbles lifted the spirits of my students. I’ve never seen so many smiles on such tough kids.

Seeing my movie quotes on TV and around LA.

I saw over 130 movies this year, and it was just super rewarding to see that someone valued my opinion enough to share it with the world.

Winning the Carmen Miranda Barbie Doll* at Richard Simmons.

I played Carmen Miranda in my high school musical review, and I have a photo of Carmen Miranda hanging in my kitchen so it was so fun to win this. Any woman who can sing and dance with fruit on her head is my heroine.

*Technically, the doll is called the Bob Mackie®Brazilian Banana Bonanza™Barbie® Doll, but is clearly a nod to the fabulous Ms. Miranda.

Sixteen Saltines and Freedom at 21 have been my soundtrack for some time. Thank you, Jack for making me feel like a teenager again. (Dreamy sigh…)

My best friends coming together to help me make my short film. You know who you are and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Getting to review movies.

Thanks SO MUCH to RioGirl for believing in me and getting me the job. And thanks to SundayGirl for letting me borrow her adorable son so I don’t look like the loser cat-lady at the Saturday morning kids’ movie screenings.

Support, love and awesome notes from my new writers group. Way to go, Culver City Clutch!

My YA Novel will be here in 2013.

Visiting KodakGirl in Prescott and watching my play Vampire Mouth come to life.

So amazing to see talented, creative people working together to create something out of nothing.

Okay, so I have some new projects in the works, yo! Let’s see what fate has in store for FalloutGirl.

New Project #1!

I’m directing a short film. Yes. Not with kids. A real short narrative film that doesn’t involve fake blood, bar mitzvahs or a history lesson. The film is called Wink and is based on my play Ring Around the Collar which was produced in Arizona last year. Wink is about the perils of internet dating and hopefully will make every guy on Match.com think twice before “winking” at a girl he doesn’t truly fancy.

The exciting thing about this project is so far, everyone I’ve begged asked for help has said YES. I’m used to NO, as in the AFI Directing Workshop for Women saying NO. NO is my default and easier than YES because it means I’m stuck and can’t move forward and it’s everyone else’s fault. But this isn’t the case right now, so far, here’s what’s happened:

Hey can I shoot at your apartment?” YES

Will you be my DP? YES

Will you be my art director? YES

Will you, a professional casting director, help me with casting? YES

Will you be my actor/actress? YES

I am humbled by the yeses. So now, I have to step up and move through the safety of NO and embrace the wild unknown of the YES.

New Project #2!

I have officially started writing my YA novel about Ada Lovelace. It is pretty crazy to go from screenplay to novel, it’s usually done in the other direction. It’s a pretty big adjustment to go from thinking visually and using minimal dialogue with heavy subtext to using as many freaking words as I want. It’s intimidating and 50,000 words seems like oh-so-many-words, but I’m going to do it.

With summer coming, I won’t be teaching and I’ll have the time to get the words in (when I’m not shooting/editing my short). When I write a screenplay, I try for two to five pages a day (seven to 10 if I’m on a caffeine-induced roll and on deadline). Can I do 1,000 words a day in novel format? I’m guessing that’s a bit ambitious. It’s going to be a great summer!